Naturism at Travel Fairs and the INF World Congress

While we're on the subject of Italy, let's continue with a look at edition 45 of the Italian Naturist Association FENAIT's Info Naturista magazine.

Featuring prominently of course is the fact that for the first time ever, Italy will be the host of the International Naturist Federation INF-FNI's once-every-two-years World Congress. The magazine also reports on Italian naturists' participation in travel fairs, mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The 32nd INF World Congress takes place from September 8 thru 12 at Pizzo Greco, a naturist camping resort near the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, in Calabria. For those of you who see Italy as a boot, then Calabria is the tip pointing toward Sicily in the far Southwest. Each Congress sees representatives from dozens of countries traveling to the destination to meet and discuss the promotion of international naturism. In 2004, Taiwan was represented at Valalta in Croatia. Info Naturista also hopes this year's event will receive a lot of attention in the Italian media. Theme of the congress is Ethical Naturism and Commercial Naturism, in other words the ever-present tension between large-scale resort ventures and small-scale, ecologically friendly campsites in forests and other remote tourism.

Talking about the ethical side, this issue of the magazine also features a report on a ecology-friendly naturist campsite in Montenegro across the Adriatic from Italy, and has a letter from a reader claiming a carnivorous nudist cannot be regarded as a true naturist, in other words, naturists should be vegetarians.

Turning to tourism fairs, in most European countries it is completely natural to have naturist resorts or associations holding a stand for their business. The magazine of course mentions Naturisme Totaal in the Dutch town of Utrecht last year, which was a travel fair completely devoted to naturism. 9,000 visitors in two days last December, the magazine reports, making sure that there will be a sequel in December 2010. The Italians were represented by four stands, each for a separate naturist resort. They were also present at the main travel fair - where most visitors might never have heard of naturism - in January this year, while Belgian naturist resorts helped distribute Italian promotion material at the travel fairs in Antwerp and Brussels.

Info Naturista again mentions the great fact that young Italians have formed a naturist association of their own, the GIN, with its own blog at http://gin.fenait.org. In addition, there are comments about the piece "Diary of a Smoker" by U.S. author David Sedaris about a first encounter with naturism. Local associations complete the magazine with reports about their winter activities, which even in Mediterranean Italy mean mostly sauna meetings safely indoors.

For a change, next time, we'll go back to Asia for a post about new associations promoting naturism in countries until now off the naturist world map. Hopefully, in the near future, they too can join the INF and be present at its World Congress.

Naturist Expo in the Netherlands

Taiwan has lots of exhibitions and fairs, for cars, for furniture, for computers and other electronics, and for travel. But the travel fairs will never feature or even mention the topic of naturism. What a contrast with Europe, where fairs in say, Belgium, or even Italy, a less naturism-friendly country, will have at least one naturist association supporting the cause.
Well, in the Netherlands, over the past three days, they even had a complete fair featuring nothing else but naturism and non-sexual nude leisure activities. The fair 'Naturisme Totaal' took place in the city of Utrecht, not in a small location hidden from view, but at the main exhibition hall in town.
According to media reports, 8,300 people visited the fair, which had a total of 140 stands. Of course you had the naturist associations and the naturist holiday resorts, but also health and spa clinics and saunas.
The Dutch naturist association says that out of the country's 16 million or so inhabitants, more than 2 million practice naturism in one form or another. That can go from just sunbathing naked in one's garden to actively participating in nude cruises, hikes, sport activities.
In other words, Asia still has a long way to go. If you want to know more about what a naturist fair is all about, visit their web site at www.naturismetotaal.nl, which also has pdf texts in English.